As I said recently in my post on Emily St John Mandel’s Station Eleven: “…it’s not the genre but how the genre is executed that really counts.”

It’s also relevant that I mentioned being a tad over vampire novels, particularly the YA variants.

Nonetheless, Holly Black’sThe Coldest Girl In Coldtown is a vampire novel and I enjoyed it all the same. It’s an entertaining, well-paced read, with a number of interesting and sympathetic characters (as well as a number of decidedly unsympathetic ones) and some excellent world-building. I also thought the romantic elements were well handled.

If I were one of those readers that demands that everything I read should be “the new, the new”, then I probably wouldn’t recommend this book to you. The Coldest Girl In Coldtown doesn’t do a whole lot new with the genre and if you’ve read Robin McKinley’s Sunshine or Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse novels you’ll find yourself on familiar ground. There were also echoes of books in related genres, such as Cherie Priest’s Boneshaker and Max Brooks’ World War Z.

If you feel like a relatively light, well-crafted, YA vampire novel with romantic elements The Coldest Girl In Coldtown could be just the ticket. In addition to the other books already mentioned, if you’ve enjoyed the Mira Grant Newsflesh trilogy, Caitlin Tiernan’s Immortal Beloved, or Melissa Marr’s Wicked Lovely, I’m pretty sure you’ll like The Coldest Girl In Coldtown.

"THE HEIR OF NIGHT by Helen Lowe is a richly told tale of strange magic, dark treachery and conflicting loyalties, set in a well realized world."--Robin Hobb

Thornspell

Jacket art by Antonio Javier Caparo

Thornspell is my first novel and is published by Knopf (Random House Children's Books, USA). It won the Sir Julius Vogel Award 2009 for Best Novel: Young Adult and was a Storylines Childrens' Literature Trust Notable Book 2009.